THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES School for Graduate Studies and Research STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY
Strategies to Enhance Research Productivity The Policy Framework Facilitating Research Many Papers and Policies designed to facilitate research have been approved by the Board for Graduate Studies and Research (BGSR), but the academic community is often unaware of them, and they are seldom operationalised. Examples include: The UWI Intellectual Property and Commercialisation Policy ; The UWI Policy and Procedures on Research Ethics ; Guidelines for Including Research Supervision Time in the Calculation of Staff Contact Hours ; The Differential Workload Policy ; Graduate Studies Guide for Students and Supervisors; Guidelines for Manuscript-Based Theses ; inter alia . There is an urgent need to compile and disseminate approved UWI Policies relevant to research across the campuses and hold Policy Awareness Workshops for the academic community, as appropriate. Apart from BGSR Policies, The UWI has approved institutional strategies in place intended to develop research capacity, improve collaboration in research and enhance the research culture. Some of these include Sabbatical Leave, Special Leave for Scholarly Purposes and Study and Travel Grants. These opportunities are often underutilised by staff, possibly in part due to lack of awareness of the guidelines affecting eligibility of applications and/or a perception of inadequate time availability to make use of them. Academic Awareness Workshops could enhance the use of these opportunities and their effectiveness in impacting research productivity. The Workshops could include the institutional expectation of work to be achieved during the leave which is to be documented in the required subsequent reporting. Leave reports submitted need to be rigorously reviewed by the University management to ensure that expectations have been met. Beyond researcher awareness of existing policies, an urgent, critical initiative is to develop and approve a new Policy on Measuring Research Productivity at The UWI which encompasses the different forms of research expected of UWI academics (see Section on Measuring Research Productivity at The UWI in this Paper), and which is clear, transparent and understood by the academic community. This Policy could then be integrated into The UWI’s Assessment and Promotions procedures. Individual Faculties have recently been commissioned to develop Faculty-specific performance assessment tools that include research output, and this will need to be integrated harmoniously with the proposed University-wide Policy on Measuring Research Productivity. Capacity Development in Research and Publishing Skills Research and publishing skills can be enhanced through mentorship programmes, capacity development workshops, strategies to support academic visibility of research outputs and strategies to promote an institutional research culture. Mentorship Strategies Mentoring is described as a symbiotic relationship between a mentor-protégé pair who assist each other to meet mutual career objectives. Professors who do not have significant administrative responsibilities are expected to be active mentors of younger academics. A good mentorship programme would facilitate collaboration in research, develop research and publishing capacity, and contribute to the development of a research culture at The UWI. Mentoring responsibilities include sharing knowledge and skills, helping to develop a trainee’s research programme that is feasible in the prevailing institutional environment, overseeing the trainee’s work, helping the trainee contact other researchers and assisting with career counselling. The trainee reciprocates by actively engaging the process and taking responsibility for their learning, offering a fresh perspective for the mentor, and taking a proactive role in monitoring and sharing disciplinary advances. Indeed, new staff, fresh from PhD or Post-Doctoral programmes, may often be more aware of disciplinary advances than resident staff. Proposed Strategies include: • Foster strong, personal and professional relationships among colleagues through opportunities for mentorship, clusters and expanded networks to facilitate research development. • Introduce peer mentorship, particularly for junior members and early career researchers at the level of Faculties, Departments, Institutes and Centres. Consideration should be given to:
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